The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the treatment of wet material. In particular, to an injector auger with a blower and auger that moves the wet material to a cyclone that uses desiccation and specific gravity to separate the wet material in to substantially liquid and solid portions, whereby the solid portion is discharged and the liquid portion is sent to a wet scrubber.
Prior art apparatus for the treatment of organic and inorganic wet material commonly consist of very large and expensive fixed immovable apparatuses, like thermal wet material treatment units. These systems, at comparable throughput rates, can require a capital investment in excess of three million dollars. These systems characteristically utilize large amounts of heat to vaporize the liquid portion of the wet material leaving the solids for removal. The typical thermal wet material processing apparatus is quite large, expensive, and requires a tremendous amount of energy and power to operate. The prior art thermal wet material treatment apparatuses are not mobile, and would thus require the transportation of the wet material to the apparatus. It is known that the transport of water is very uneconomical.
These and other disadvantages reduce the overall efficiency and effectiveness of prior art thermal treatment systems. Thus, a need exists for a more efficient and cost effective method and apparatus for the disposal and treatment of wet material.
An object of the present invention comprises providing an improved apparatus and method for treating wet material.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following specification, drawings, and claims.
The present invention intends to overcome the difficulties encountered heretofore. To that end, a wet material treatment apparatus includes an inlet hopper for introducing the wet material into the apparatus. The hopper feeds the wet material into an injector auger and wherein a blower provides a positive pressure to direct the flow of the wet material into the apparatus. The wet material moves from the injector auger into a cyclone that separates the wet material through desiccation and specific gravity into a substantially liquid and a substantially solid portion. The substantially solid portion is discharged through a first outlet in the cyclone to a wet scrubber, while the substantially liquid portion of the wet material is discharged through a second outlet.